1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a POS system which employs a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning function such as a shopping cart (hand cart) or a shopping basket for use in the distribution industry, particularly in a store such a mass sales store, a convenience store or a supermarket to allow a customer to accommodate and transport a purchased commodity in order to purchase the commodity while the customer itself reads a commodity code such as a bar code applied to the commodity.
2) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a POS system is used in various stores (such as, supermarkets and convenience stores). In the POS system, a customer walks around in a store pushing a shopping cart or carrying a shopping basket, places commodities to be purchased into the shopping cart or the shopping basket, and comes to a settlement POS terminal (POS register).
Then at the settlement POS terminal, an operator takes out the commodities one by one from the shopping cart or the shopping basket and reads the bar codes (commodity codes) applies to the commodities by means of a scanner to effect registration processing. In particular, in accordance with commodity code information read from each bar code, the price of the commodity corresponding to the commodity code is retrieved from a commodity price file (PLU (Price Look UP) file), and a total amount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated to settle the accounts.
With such POS system, however, since an operator must perform a reading operation of a commodity code of each commodity, much time is required for such reading operation and a settling operation, which causes the customer to wait for a long time. Accordingly, in a time band in which customers are crowded, a queue of customers is produced in front of a settlement POS terminal, and besides, the burden on the operator is heavy.
Thus, in recent years, a shopping cart (scanning cart) or a shopping basket having a scanner (commodity code reading section) for reading a bar code (commodity code) applied to a commodity has been developed and are disclosed in various publications including, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Applications No. Showa 63-145591, No. Heisel 2-277412 and No. Heisel 5-81559.
In a POS system which employs a shopping cart or a shopping basket of the type mentioned, a customer itself reads a bar code applied to a commodity to be purchased by means of the scanner to register the commodity code information and places or accommodates the commodity into an accommodating section of the shopping cart or the shopping basket, and then after selection of commodities to be purchased is completed, the commodities are placed into the shopping cart or the shopping basket and transported to a settlement POS terminal.
Then at the settlement POS terminal, the commodity code information (or commodity price information corresponding to the commodity code information) registered by the customer itself is loaded down, and a total amount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated based on the commodity code information (commodity price information) to effect settlement of the accounts.
With the POS system, an operator no more need read the commodity codes of commodities one by one, and the time (register operation time) required for reading processing and settling processing can be reduced significantly. Consequently, the customer need not wait for a long time, and the burden on the operator can be remarkably reduced.
With such a conventional POS system as described above, however, since it does not have means by which a total amount of money or individual unit prices of commodities loaded on a shopping cart or in a shopping basket comes to a knowledge of a customer before the commodities are transported to a settlement POS terminal, the customer cannot prepare an amount of money for settlement of accounts in advance and may possibly try to buy commodities of an amount of money greater than its estimate. Accordingly, the conventional POS system has a subject to be solved in that shoppping cannot be performed smoothly or without anxiety.
Further, in this instance, an operator must perform a procedure of returning excessive commodities upon settlement of accounts. Accordingly, there is another subject to be solved in that the labor of the operator is increased as much.
Furthermore, since commodity code information is loaded down, at a settlement POS terminal, in order of commodities inputted by the customer, printing on a receipt upon settlement of accounts occurs in order of the inputs by the customer. Consequently, the commodities on the receipt are not classified for individual groups. Accordingly, there is a further subject to be solved in that much time is required for the customer to confirm the thus purchased commodities and it is cumbersome to keep a record of household accounts in accordance with the receipt.